I feel like there was something funny that I wanted to put as my subject line, but now I can't remember

We had some cool things happen this week.

On Saturday I made a few phone calls asking people if they were going to be coming to church--one was an ex member named Martin who wants to come back--he has been meeting with the Elders here for a while, but but he hadn't been to church in 14 years. He said he would come. And then I called a lady named Becky who is a member, but also hadn't been out to church in years. We met her on Wednesday (I think) when we were out near the Town Centre talking to people. She came up to us and said she is moving soon and wants her new house blessed, and she also said she has been thinking about how she wants to come back to church. She also said that she would come.

Then on Sunday morning, they both came to church. It was awesome!

We have also met a few Chinese people to teach, which is pretty crazy because there are not very many Chinese people in Swindon. One has pretty good English, so I should be able to participate pretty well in the coming lessons with her. The other doesn't have very good English, so when we met with her the other day I was basically just sitting there listening to my companion teaching her in Mandarin. There actually is a chinese family in the ward here too though, so we will have some good fellowshipping for them.

Anyway, doing the work of the Lord is AWESOME. I love sharing the gospel with people.

I hope you all have an incredible week.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

What's a Swindon?

Surprise! I got transferred this week. It was bittersweet of course to leave behind Elder Tupou and the awesome people we had been visiting, but it will be good to have another fresh start. I decided not to tell you that it would probably happen because I didn't know for sure yet and I didn't want to make anyone worry for a week about where I was, if I was safe, etc. Just so you know, I am now in Swindon, and I am safe. Everything is great here.

1. This is my new companion, Elder Hsu (pronounced like "shoe," it is also sometimes spelled Xu, but none of those are actually correct, because of course it is actually a chinese character). He is from Taiwan and he is way cool. His English is quite good by now because he is always seeking to learn more and he has been over here since last November.

2. This is Mark Parry, another Less Active member in Wolverhampton

3. This is a sign that says Mullet. It is supposed to say mullet road, but it is broken. I thought it was funny, anyway.

4. This is Melissa and her son Caelan. They are great.

5. This is the view out the window of my new flat in Swindon. It is quite nice here. Affluent, I mean. There is a nice Porsche always parked down the road from us.

6. this is AJ

7. this is Kris (and the one next to him is me)

Swindon seems great so far. There is a huge ward, very supportive, and there are many people here who need the Gospel. I hope I can do my best to bring it to them. My companion, Elder Hsu is excited to work hard with me this transfer, and we have another companionship of elders and some sisters too in the ward with us here. We are going to see some amazing things happen here, I am sure of it.

So far, this week we visited a really good guy named Chris who wants to be baptised and has been taught much by the missionaries, but he is currently on probation. Probably more on him to come, but what it may come down to is just a lot of praying that his probationary period can end sooner rather than later.

Aside from that, we will probably be spending a lot of time on the streets talking to new people, and trying to contact people who the missionaries have taught in the past. It will be good.

I hope you all have a really amazing week.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

"How Will That Help Me With My Problems?"

This week we didn't have a single lesson to an investigator all week...until Friday, when we went out in the morning and had three in a row. That was awesome. And then we had another two on Saturday. We had AJ with us at church on Sunday again, and a new investigator named Daniel. Daniel is from Ethiopia and his English isn't amazing, so he had a bit of a hard time understanding what was going on. We got him a Book of Mormon in this crazy looking language called Ahmaric. AJ had a great time. I think that our church services are still very foreign to him, having been raised in Sikh culture, but he is beginning to become more comfortable with it and to recognize the peace that comes from feeling the spirit. At the beginning of Church he didn't seem to be in a very good state of mind, but by the end, he was happy and smiling. After the end of the meetings he started asking me some questions. "If I read the Book of Mormon, how will that help me with my problems?" he asked. I then had the incredible opportunity of being able to share my testimony with him of how studying the Book of Mormon each day can bring the spirit into our lives, help us know what to do, and give us the power to do it. It was great. I hope to be able to have many similar experiences for the rest of my mission and for the rest of my life. Because being able to bear testimony to someone who has a sincere desire to learn is great.

Anyway, I hope you all have a really incredible week!

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen

Things Are Good in Wolverhampton!

Things have been good this week. We've been able to teach our friend Nyasha some more, and we had Melissa with us at church again. By the way, Melissa looks a lot like Aunt Jean. I'll probably get a picture with her this week to send and you guys can see. We haven't been able to get ahold of AJ, so that is sad, but we will just have to try, try again. I was blessed to be able to do a few baptismal interviews this week for people being taught by other missionaries in the district here. One was for this really cool kid named Ash who is just about 8 months older than I am. He found out about the church online because of somebody's mormon.org video (they actually do work!) and he has come to church 3 or 4 times now. He loves it. He will be baptised this week. Hopefully this week we will get to meet some more incredibly amazing people to share the Gospel with. Its bound to happen, seeing as how we have been called to be in this place at this time by revelation. Anyway, my favorite scripture of the day is Romans 8: 16-18. Think about it a bit. Its incredible.

I hope you all have an amazing week.

Love,

Elder Seth Poulsen